(Image: The Swing, by Jean-Honore Fragonard)This article appeared in the Wpg Free Press, as part of their Valentine's Day "Love and Sex" section.
For a revealing look at sex in art, a good place to start is in 1776, when Jean-Honore Fragonard's painting The Swing was titillating European audiences. The work shows a young man discreetly looking up a young woman's skirt, to her apparent enjoyment, as she's pushed on a swing by her older lover. By today's standards, it's pretty tame stuff, but for Fragonard's day, this frank depiction of desire was nothing short of scandalous.
In the age of internet porn, with upskirt this and girls gone that, it can seem as if we're living in a time that is particularly obsessed with sex. But even in the most repressed of cultures--Victorian England comes to mind--sexual tension still bubbled hotly under the surface, and popped up in some of the unlikeliest places.
Well into the 1800's, church control over the codes of public morality in Europe was strict. This showed up in the art, which was almost entirely religious-themed. But even there, in what would seem at first to be the most orthodox of artwork, it doesn't take much imagination to notice the sex peeking through.
Italian sculptor Giovani Bernini, for example, created famous 17th century works depicting Saint Theresa, including a scene in which the saint, after days of fasting and prayer, was said to be suddenly overcome by the power of Christ. Many scholars point out Bernini's own religious devotion, so that he likely intended the work to be nothing more than a straightforward religious icon.
It still seems that, consciously or not, Bernini has depicted the saint as experiencing something other than just religous fervour, since this and other similar works show her hands clutching feverishly at her breasts, or sliding down between her legs, while her eyes roll heavenward.
Religious icon, or sex symbol--or perhaps a bit of both.
The question of what is pornography and what is art, has for centuries been a horny, er, thorny issue. Two leading Italian artists were imprisoned in the early 1500's by Pope Clement II, after the publication their book I Modi (The Ways), which depicted various sexual escapades through images and text.
Even then, though, there was clearly a market for this type of work, since most art was bought or commissioned by wealthy patrons, and with a book like I Modi, numerous editions were usually produced at great expense. In I Modi's case, all copies were destroyed by the Pope, and only a less-than-faithful reproduction still remains to show us the work that enraged and titillated 16th century audiences.
At the same time that European artists were sneaking erotica into religious art, Japanese woodblock prints and illustrated Kama Sutra texts celebrated sexuality with explicit scenes of orgies.
The connections between art and sex go back much further, though. Some of the earliest known works of art depict female nudes, and are thought to have been representations of fertility goddesses. The so-called Venus of Willendorf for example, found in 1908 in Austria, is a 24,000 year old statue of a nude, pregnant female.
And both the ancient Greeks and Romans showed an obsession with sex that makes our modern internet porn culture seem dull in comparison. Phallic symbols and nudes show up in almost every work imaginable, from scenes of daily life to mythological images.
To these ancients, no sexual subject was taboo. Their dramas and comedies openly discussed and parodied topics that even most of today's Hollywood films (and some of the raunchiest internet porn) wouldn't touch with a ten-foot dildo. And Sappho's erotic lesbian poetry remains every bit as spicy today as when it was written in the 7th century BC.
In the last few centuries, standards in Europe and North America have changed enough that sex in art is fairly accepted, and no longer has to be subtle.
The fifth annual Seattle Erotic Art Festival takes place next month, for example, with thousands of artists and visitors from across North America expected to participate. And internationally recognized figures like Robert Mapplethorpe and Julian Murphy continue to make images that blur the boundaries between high art and erotica.
Looking at a history of art, it seems that from our earliest ancestors on, humans have been fascinated with sex--that would probably explain why there's always been so many new little humans running around.
